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Sunday, May 13, 2018

How to make a modern quilt

It was the monthly meeting of the West End Modern Quilt Guild yesterday. What a super talented bunch of ladies. I'm so impressed by their talents, their drive and their ability to open their minds to explore new avenues.

Yesterday was a day of sharing notions and tools that we liked and disliked. Oh boy - there were some amazing tips and it's so nice to see participation from all of the guild members. I always say that the more you put into anything, the more you get back in return. It's just boring to be a passive member of anything - even day to day life.

Here's a sample of some of the work we saw yesterday.

Our guild participated in the Modern Quilt Guild charity challenge for Quiltcon 2018. In case you don't remember that quilt, this is what it looked like.

West End Modern Quilt Guild charity challenge for 2018

We had a lot of half square triangles and odd bits of fabric left over from the project and not wanting it to go to waste, I decided to divvy up the leftovers into 35 bags (one for each member). A while back, I distributed the bags to the guild members with the idea that at the May meeting, we would have a show n tell of what the members created with their little bag of goodies.

I know that a lot of members forgot the challenge as we only had four pieces show up at the meeting. But that's OK. They've all been reminded (that's the big issue - people don't write these deadlines in their calendar and it was only a verbal note at the meeting so I don't blame them!)

Anyway, here's a look at mine and how I got there.

I started by placing all the half square triangles on the design wall. Each bag had a comparable amount of half square triangles in all the sizes. There were some leftover bits of unpieced fabric and each bag got some as well. This is what I started with. I had laid the HST out in some semblance of a pattern.

My starting point

I needed one more half square triangle to fill the bottom right corner.

The next step

Then I sewed it all together.

All the HST sewed together

My inspiration for this next step came from a member (Johanna) of the Grand River Modern Quilt Guild (of which I'm also a member) and that meeting was on this past Thursday night. Perfect timing. I sliced the piece up! Vertical slices that were somewhat even in width. Then every second strip got reversed and I sewed it all back together again. I LOVE IT!!!!!

My NEW modern piece

I didn't get a chance to quilt it yet, but after seeing some of the other pieces, I might reconsider what I'm going to do with it. Maybe I'm not done yet.

BTW - I got rid of that last HST and the orange bits as one member wasn't around when the bags were handed out and I gave her my leftovers. I did add a white square to make the last HSTneeded in order to complete my rectangle. That was allowed. There were NO rules.

Here are the other pieces that showed up at the guild meeting.

This first piece was created by Veronica. I love what she did and I love it even more that she had quilted it. Veronica is a traditional quilter who is experienced in life. What I so love about the modern movement - initially, I thought it was all about the young people. NOPE -- I think the older generations are having way more fun with the modern movement than the younger generations. Why? We have more money and time, we have the skill set for sewing, and we have all the tools. More importantly, we have that burning desire to do something different.

Veronica's modern piece for the challenge

This one was done by Judy. I love it as well. Again, Judy is more experienced in life than the average modern quilter, but it looks like she embraced this challenge with gusto!! It's quilted in a variety of ways which I love. It looks like she used pretty much everything that came in the baggie (as did Veronica above).

Judy's modern quilt for the mini challenge

And look at her label!!!! I love that!!!!!

The label on Judy's quilt

Then Heather got up to show us what she had done and my jaw dropped. Heather is also an experienced in life quilter and a very traditional quilter which she openly admits. WOW - where the heck did this come from??? I absolutely LOVE the piece. She came up with the quilting idea herself and did it her self on her domestic machine. She used the lines in the small piece as her inspiration and to set the direction of the lines.

Heather's modern quilt for the charity challenge leftovers

WOW - WOW --- that was super show n tell for the leftover bits challenge from the charity quilt.

I think the rest of the members will show up next month with their completed projects as people were reminded of the challenge. I won't be at the next meeting, but I'm sure someone will take pictures!!!!

Way to go Judy, Veroni, and Heather. You've impressed me to death!!!!!

Here's my inspirational quote for the day!!! That's exactly what ladies did. And did a superb job as well.

Inspirational quote of the day

I have to confess that after I got home from the meeting, I really didn't feel like doing much. It was coolish in the house, I was tired and so I had a wee nap. Not that long otherwise it messes up my night (and day).

I managed to get some cutting done. I had been prepping for the next big ender/leader project and going through this box of scraps and cutting 1 ½" squares. I sorted through the box for those pieces that were big enough to get 1 ½" squares and that's the pile on the cutting mat.

Cutting 1 1/2" squares

Normally when I'm cutting/sewing, I listen to the radio. But I have an audio book that I need to listen to. It's on my phone which makes it handy and no need for headphones. I started the book and now I'm well into the book. The only problem, I realize is that I use the radio as a clock. Without the radio, the hours did fly by.

This morning, I thought I would get ambitious again and cut some more, but for a different project. Today, I'm cutting pieces for 150 Canadian Women. My goal? Cut the remaining 24 blocks. I'm almost completed the white for all 24, then onto the red.

Cutting 150 Canadian Women blocks

I wanted to sit outside yesterday afternooon, but it was a tad too cool. Today looks more promising.

But I've decided that I have to get some hand embroidery done. So while we watched a movie last night, I worked on this block. This is one of my UFOs and I had better get my act together if I have any hope of getting it completed by the end of the year.

Hand embroidery block

I'm almost done this block, but it'll still take an hour or more to get it done. A couple more movies or more audiobooks.

Sorted more paperwork and it's in the box for the shredding date of June 2. Still, a HUGE stack to go through - we're talking YEARS worth of paperwork. I hate to just dump it all without quickly browsing the receipts and keeping one or two (for fun or just because). Hey M -- you do realize that I'm making your job easy by getting rid of all this stuff now!!!!

Here's my advice to anyone out there and I so wish that someone would have given me this advice years ago and if they did that I would have listened to them.

Set aside some time every day/week to sort through whatever comes into the house and deal with it.

Set up a filing system and use it. (I have one set up - hardly every used)

Watch what you buy. Do you really need five thousand (OK - a slight exaggeration) of one thing?

Don't let your kid dictate what you buy

Watch how many craft supplies you buy

Don't buy Happy Meals just for the toy

Anyway, we're (I'm) muddling my way through this mess. Every day, it looks better (I just need to make sure to do a little every day) but I'm so of the midset to get a dumpster in the driveway and open the windows and doors and just dump everything (except the basement studio) that we haven't touched in 6 months. I'm so ready, but the practical side of me (learned from my parents - darn them!) says - go through it - sort it, keep some of it, give some away, blah, blah, blah.

On that note, I see that the day is gorgeous outside. I've NOTHING planned for the day, although I do have a ton of work to do. But I think it's time to pump up those bike tires and hit the road. Then think how many calories I can eat today!!!!